Cake! Cake! Cake!

October —The Cake Month

Chocolate Cake with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

October was a busy month for me. I thought about making the cake every day and the days just kept passing me by. And then before I knew it, November was here. The good thing is that my tardiness paid off. November is Dan’s birthday month so, of course, I thought I could kill two birds with one cake. I was feeling good and started thinking this was going to be easy! I was wrong! I didn’t know that Dan’s favorite cake is mint chocolate ice cream cake. After researching ice cream cakes for hours, I had an epiphany. Ice cream cake is just ice cream and cake smashed together, so it’ll be easy. I was wrong!

I continued with my genius gut instinct. Well, I wanted to make Ina Garten’s chocolate cake again to perfect it (the same one I made for Kirsten’s birthday). So here we go:

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake

• Butter, for greasing the pans

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

• 2 cups sugar

• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions for the Chocolate Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

• Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

• Place 1 layer, flat sideup, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Ingredients and Directions for the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Go to the grocery store. Choose mint chocolate chip ice cream of your choice. Pay for the ice cream. Take the ice cream home with you.

Directions for Assembling the Cake

A layer of chocolate cake, a layer of ice cream, another layer of chocolate cake, another layer of ice cream, and sprinkles (because sprinkles make everything better). Woila!